Rocky road to happiness
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday October 9, 2009
Woody Allen's latest film challenged his star, writes Conrad Walters. Evan Rachel Wood may be so used to hearing herself described that flattery slides off her like silk. Praise for her acting in films including Thirteen and The Wrestler have prompted accolades such as "one of the best actresses of her generation".The descriptions her character attracts in Woody Allen's new movie, Whatever Works, aren't as kind. Inside three minutes, her naive waif character, Melody, is deemed a "brainless twit", an "imbecile child" and a "bedraggled microbe" by co-star Larry David.So how was she about that? "I'm telling you right now that was difficult," Wood says from Los Angeles. "And it was not only difficult to have to say such idiotic things with a straight face but to also be completely insulted to my face by Larry and have it just fly over my [character's] head."The invective is directed at Melody, who has arrived hungry and homeless in New York City. She turns up on the doorstep of David's character, Boris, a misanthropic genius whose philosophy is summed up by the film's title. "In this cruel dog-eat-dog pointless black chaos," he says, find joy wherever you can, by whatever means.Against his better judgment, the unlikely pair gradually fall for one another. Until the Fates step in.For Wood, the part came unexpectedly, Allen casting her without an audition.Among the director's many quirks, he only gives actors those parts of the script that involve them, typically no more than 15 pages."I got sent the whole script, so I figured that was a good sign," Wood says. David was the only other cast member to see the full story, which made for some mischievous delights. "Larry and I would mess with the other cast members and make up stories and tell them the story was about aliens or dinosaurs or anything," she says.Despite the fun with co-stars, including Ed Begley and Patricia Clarkson, Wood describes the film as "the most serious set I've ever had to be on because you can't laugh".WHATEVER WORKSDirector Woody Allen. Stars Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood. Rating M. Opens October 15.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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